Day, money, way - A corpus-based investigation of the phraseology of three high frequency nouns and its implications for the design of TEFL materials

Term Paper (Advanced seminar) , 2006 , 140 Pages , Grade: 1,3

English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics

The use of corpora has expanded linguistic research possibilities, revolutionized theoretical concepts of language by applying empirical methods, and changed the face of applied linguistics. Although corpora are a tremendous asset to lexicography, translation studies, cultural studies and even to forensics, an awareness of their benefits has not fully arrived in the field of language teaching, yet. While insights from corpora linguistics have led to the development of a new and improved generation of dictionaries, most teaching materials for teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) have been largely unaffected in this respect, and are regrettably still based on old conventions and on the intuition of course book designers.
This unfortunate fact is the starting point for the term paper at hand, which investi-gates the high frequency nouns day, money and way in two corpora in order to compare their authentic use by native speakers to their illustration in German teaching materials. Its focus is set on phraseology and frequency to find out if these nouns are adequately represented, or if an amendment of teaching materials is necessary.
The spoken part of the British National Corpus (BNC spoken) serves as the basis of this analysis, due to the fact that German language teaching policy favours a communicative approach aiming at the development of communicative competence and fluency in spoken English. The BNC findings are juxtaposed to the results of an analysis of the German English as a Foreign Language Textbook Corpus (GEFL TC), a corpus comprising two school book series. Additionally, the nouns´ introduction and presentation in the German English G 2000 textbook series are explored. Finally, as one approach to investigate the teaching materials for advanced learners, the respective entries are checked in three dictionaries aiming at this target group, namely the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, the Macmillan Dictionary for Advanced Learners and the Oxford Advanced Learners´ Dictionary of Current English.
The paper will first provide the theoretical background for the analysis, and will explain its concept and methods. Subsequently, it will focus on the analysis´ results and will propose improvements to textbook design. Last but not least, it presents Data Driven Learning (DDL) as corpus-based complement of course books and devises six exercises, based on the corpora findings of the BNC spoken, to exemplify it.

Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Main Part
• 2.1. Phraseology, Frequency and Typicality as Issues of Corpus Linguistics
• 2.1.1. Phraseology
• 2.1.2. Frequency and Typicality
• 2.2. Phraseology, Frequency and Typicality in Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching
• 2.3. Status Quo of Phraseology and Frequency in Contemporary Teaching Materials
• 2.4. Concept of Analysis at Hand
• 2.5. Day, Money and Way in the BNC Spoken and in the GEFL TC
• 2.5.1. Day
• 2.5.2. Money
• 2.5.3. Way
• 2.5.4. Summary of the Findings
• 2.6. Day, Money and Way in the English G 2000 Series
• 2.6.1. Day
• 2.6.2. Money
• 2.6.3. Way
• 2.6.4. Summary of the Findings
• 2.7. Day, Money and Way in Advanced Learners' Dictionaries
• 2.8. Conclusion
• 2.9. DDL-Exercises
• 2.9.1. The Benefits of DDL-Exercises for TEFL
• 2.9.2. Direct and Indirect Approach
• 2.9.3. Exercises Concerning Day, Money, Way
• 2.9.3.1. Day
• 2.9.3.2. Money
• 2.9.3.3. Way

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)

This term paper investigates the use of the high frequency nouns day, money and way in two corpora to compare their authentic use by native speakers to their illustration in German teaching materials. The paper aims to determine if these nouns are adequately represented in teaching materials or if an amendment is necessary. This investigation focuses on phraseology and frequency to understand how these concepts influence the use of these nouns.

• The role of phraseology in corpus linguistics and its implications for language understanding
• The impact of frequency and typicality on the understanding and use of words
• The importance of incorporating corpus insights into the design of TEFL materials
• The comparison of authentic language use with the presentation of these nouns in German teaching materials
• The development of corpus-based exercises to enhance language learning

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)

• Chapter 1: Introduction: This chapter introduces the term paper, highlighting the importance of corpora in linguistic research and their growing impact on applied linguistics. It explains the rationale for focusing on the high frequency nouns day, money and way, and outlines the research objectives and methodology.
• Chapter 2: Main Part: This chapter explores the concepts of phraseology, frequency and typicality in detail. It investigates the relationship between these concepts and language understanding, explores their relevance in applied linguistics and language teaching, and examines the current status of their representation in contemporary teaching materials. The chapter also analyzes the use of the target nouns in the British National Corpus Spoken (BNC Spoken) and the German English as a Foreign Language Textbook Corpus (GEFL TC), comparing these findings to their presentation in the German English G 2000 textbook series and advanced learner's dictionaries. Finally, the chapter introduces Data Driven Learning (DDL) as a corpus-based supplement to course books and proposes six exercises based on corpus findings to illustrate this approach.

Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)

This term paper focuses on the intersection of corpus linguistics, language teaching, and the phraseology of high frequency nouns. Key concepts explored include phraseology, frequency, typicality, collocation, semantic prosody, Data Driven Learning (DDL), and the use of corpora in analyzing language data and designing effective TEFL materials. The analysis of the target nouns day, money and way in the BNC Spoken, GEFL TC, and German English G 2000 series provides valuable insights into the relationship between authentic language use and the representation of these nouns in teaching materials.

• College: University of Hannover (Englisches Seminar)
• Course: Hauptseminar Corpora and Language Teaching
• Grade: 1,3
• Author: Dipl.Jurist Marco Sievers (Author)
• Publication Year: 2006
• Pages: 140
• Catalog Number: V82004
• ISBN (eBook): 9783638887472
• ISBN (Book): 9783638887700
• Language: English
• Tags: TEFL, Hauptseminar, Corpora, Language, Teaching